Posted on 02/12/2018 2:11:47 PM PST by nickcarraway
Imagine going to sleep and waking up sounding British. It's a real thing, and it happened to a Valley woman who has never even left the country.
"Everybody only sees or hears Mary Poppins," said Michelle Myers, a mom of seven who lives in Buckeye.
Myers is a former Texas beauty queen who has never even left the United States.
Three times in the past seven years, Myers has gone to sleep with blinding headaches only to wake up with a different accent.
The first time it was Irish. The second time was Australian. Both incidents lasted about a week. But two years ago she went down with a crippling headache and woke up with the British accent she's had ever since.
"They send in the psychiatrist at the hospital and make sure you're not a loon," said Myers.
According to experts, she's not crazy and not faking it. She's been diagnosed with Foreign Accent Syndrome. It's an extremely rare condition that usually accompanies a stroke, neurological damage or other underlying medical issues.
"When I was a little girl I used to always go to my mom and say, 'my bones hurt," said Myers.
She has been to the hospital more times than she can count and the stack of medical records she keeps in the house says she has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
According to the Mayo Clinic, it's a disease that causes easy bruising, rupturing blood vessels and painful joints that are overly elastic to the point of easily dislocating. Best her doctors can tell, it also turned her British.
Looking back at how she used to be is difficult, Myers says. She misses the way she used to say her kids' names.
"I'm sad," she said, watching an old video of her speaking normally. "I feel like a different person. The person I am now has been through so much compared to this person."
But her outlook is positive.
She's loves spending time with her seven kids, listening to them sing and play instruments. She also likes painting, writing, and motivating people.
And above all, she wants people to take her seriously.
"Some people think it’s physiological; others think it’s psychological. People like me - we don’t care which one it is. We just really want to be taken seriously and if it is something that’s going to hurt me, help me."
I wonder if that brain issue would also apply to liberals, they wake up one day against anything that relies on basic common sense when it comes to politics.
A similar thing happened to the Hildebeast when speaking to a group of black people. It’s called baloney, hooey, BS, what have you.
Foreign accent syndrome sounds like just another name for Munchausen syndrome-the attention-getting behavior where someone harms themselves or pretends they are mentally or physically ill for all the attention they will get...
LOL. Only only one way to tell. Bring out Roman Polanski and see if she stands up and claps.
LOL
Good one.
You nailed it.
Hey, look on the bright side. At least she woke up with a pretty accent. It could have been something terrible, like a Hoboken accent.
Hillary had that disease when talking in the South.
Happened to my nephew’s fiancee a few years ago - she woke up after surgery with a British accent. It was SO bizarre - she hated it and was panicked that my nephew wouldn’t marry her. (Of course that didn’t deter him.) Thankfully the accent faded away after a few months – she is now a happy American-speaking mom of two pre-scholers.
If that is a recent photo, then she is mutton dressing up as lamb in a weird way...
Pretty sure she’s faking after watching the video. No disorder would cause her to say “waking up at hospital.”
Thank you-I’ve actually seen that a couple of times as a case manager-the attention the client got from us was an immediate referral for a psych eval and probably in-depth psychotherapy before we would work with them again...
I’ve encountered this a few times. There are several possible causes.
The most bizarre is when it is a different language rather than just an accent. In these situations it was spirit attachment.
Going Scottish is for business reasons
I’m pretty sure my Brit neighbor would say “in hospital”-I sent her the link-can’t wait to hear what a laugh she gets out of it...
The first thing to look for is multiple personality disorder, rather than just language changes.
I’m certain she would but that is sentence structure, not accent. An American would not say that, even with a speech disorder. Ergo, she’s faking.
I remember reading about a German man who had a wreck on the Autobahn and he lost half of his brain as a result. When he woke up in the recovery room and the doctor told him what happened all he could do was say “Ma Ma Mia”!
An interesting syndrome, affecting one’s mimicry abilities.
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